Site Menu:
This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below: |
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Cardiovascular, Blood, and Immune System » Discussions on Cardiovascular, Blood, and Immune System not covered above » |
Discussion on Equine chronic fatigue synDrOme | |
Author | Message |
New Member: Saswain |
Posted on Thursday, Apr 28, 2005 - 11:12 am: I own a 7 yr old horse who had EHV-4 in February 2003. She seemed to recover OK. Last year in 2004 she had a high temperture 39.5 and went on to develop a cough and yellow nasal disharge. We was put on bute and antibiotics. She was back in work for 2 months when she developed masal discharge and a cough again. This time bloods and nasal swab were taken (after she hadnt responded to 2 course of Norodine). These showed a viral infection with a secondary bacterial infection. 6 x 5 day courses of Baytil plus Ventipulmin cleared the symptoms up after 2 months. I was told to put her back in to work (no repeat bloods were taken) and after a month she developed a high temperature. The blood test showed a low WBC and a reversed neutrophil: lymphocyte ratio. This was in October. The test was repeated in February and the results were the same. I have been told to give her a year off and the suggested diagnsis is equine chronic fatigue. Although my horse was unusually quiet and 'tired' in October she has been galloping around the field every since. I have spoken to the vets and they have mentioned that you can get this blood results for a variety of reasons other than as a consequence of a virus but there weren't anymore specific than that. I cant find any information anywhere on this topic - I have read the research by an Italian vet but it doesnt seem to be same condition. Has anyone else experience of this? |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Friday, Apr 29, 2005 - 7:33 am: Hello DrS,I have not heard of Equine Chronic Fatigue SynDrOme and it sounds like to me you are suffering from a run of recurrent upper respiratory infections. I would be sure her vaccines are current and watch the company she keeps. You do see chronic fatigue in some horses coming off the track but these seem to be the result of overwork, overpushed, and overmedicated (anabolic steroids in particular) and require a 6 to 12 month recovery period to get the sparkle back. DrO |
New Member: Saswain |
Posted on Friday, Apr 29, 2005 - 8:12 am: Thanks for the reply. I believe Sidney Ricketts at the Animal Health Trust has done some work in this area. I have been told it can take up to two years before she may return to normal, although some never do. Perhaps I put her back in to work to soon after she was ill but she has never really done anything other than 'light work' anyway. I was interested in any other possible causes of her blood profile (she has an undiagnosed neurological condition) |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Friday, Apr 29, 2005 - 11:07 am: I went and did a search in PubMed and see where Ricketts had a single mention in the Vet Rec (1992) but there have been no other published reports and neither does it appear in a dozen of Equine Medicine texts that I have looked through. If you have a copy of this report or if you know of any other references, I would be interested.Concerning your blood work can you give me the complete CBD and the cytological appearance of the WBC's? Such changes are pretty common in horses and nonspecific for disease in a otherwise healthy appearing horse as you describe your horse is now. What might help us further is the degree of change and exactly which cells are depressed. It sounds like you have a neutropenia but the lymphocytes may be normal. Once we have the actual numbers maybe something will fall out but in an otherwise healthy horse there may be no significance. DrO |
Member: Christos |
Posted on Friday, Apr 29, 2005 - 3:00 pm: I found another report, DrO:https://www.geocities.com/cfsinhorses/ |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 30, 2005 - 7:32 am: Excellent Christos,despite his title to the contrary, the paper seems to be reporting on a chronic blood infection that causes fatique rather than a chronic fatique synDrOme. He lists two hallmarks of his disease the micrococci on the red blood cells and elevated muscle enzymes and I think the blood smear looks suspicious for Babesia: If it is Babesia it is interesting that he treated it successfully with the arsenical Caparsolate. DrS have they found any unusal structures on the RBC's during the CBD? DrO |
Member: Christos |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 30, 2005 - 9:25 am: Now please, everybody, duck, here's a really long shot:DrO, doesn't this study somehow justify the very popular belief that flax seed can resurrect some eternally tired horses? |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 30, 2005 - 12:36 pm: uhhhhhh....the cyanide in unprocessed flax will kill the organism before it kills the horse? Did I miss something here, I can't make the leap of logic to connect the two but can't wait for the explanation!DrO |
Member: Christos |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 30, 2005 - 7:32 pm: Sure you can't, there's no logic to aid to the leap!I somehow got cyanide and arsenic mixed up in my thinking. Sorry for the space and time. (told you it was a long shot, I hope nobody was hit) |